Primitive Archer

Hey guys.

I'm new to the site, my brothers been following it for years & has learned so much about bow making.  I'd like to share what I do & hopefully learn from others as well.  At the moment I'm almost at a stage where I can confidently turn fallow & red deer hides into lovely soft buckskin everytime.  Just have to refine the method down so as to get a more consistent result, sometimes those spines go ever so slightly stiff on me.  I figured allowing the hides to soak in the brains over a night or two, in combination with wringing & stretching by hand should remedy this for the most part?  If it doesn't soften first time, a good pre-smoking should no doubt do the trick.  Pre-smoking is such a game changer for those larger more stubborn hides, red deer are seriously like small elk.

I've seen people produce green buckskin via smoking.  No doubt there are many different colors of buckskin out there that have been acquired with dyes, however I'm wanting to endeavor & see if I can't discover what kind of punk or natural resource I can use to create green buckskin via smoking.  Or at the very least just learn if it's possible, which I'm sure it is.. right? 

Keep in mind, I'm in New Zealand.  Pretty much no one makes buckskin, most people don't even know what it is, let alone how to make green buckskin bahaha.  Ah man, pretty tricky stuff.  But perhaps if I knew what was used in other countries, I could perhaps find similar, if not identical species here?

Thanks guys, keen to hear from anyone & see photos of buckskin being produced.  Pretty rare to see people online making it.  There is another FB group called "Brain Tanning."  got some legends in there.

I have a FB group called "Traditional Tanning NZ".  It's doing pretty well with over 5k members now.

FB Group - https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1CSFR4tBUK/ (just if anyone's interested to see the occasional kiwi posting about natural tanning or my stuff more consistently.)



buckskin softened with brains, pre-smoking.


smoked buckskin

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,53940.0.html

This is how I handled a similar stave. Killed my first and only deer with it too.

 For these ones you need to get a clear picture in your mind of how you think this stave in going to look with perfect tiller for its shape(rather than perfect tiller on a perfect stave)

I do this by doing a drawing of the stave before tillering, relaxed, and also how it should look strung and at full draw. If you don't do something similar, it can be hard to keep each limb doing its fair share of the work, even if the thickness taper is correct. If you put it down for a couple of weeks and don't have a drawing, when you start again it's easy to get confused, whether its bending properly, or whether one limb is taking too much set in relation to the other. Without a hard reference you won't be able to tell.

Id experiment with adding a solvent to the pitch, like a turpentine, then add the wax until its the consistency you want, and evaporate off the solvent, stirring until its thickened up. But, i just use bees wax and a little deer tallow mixed in to soften it up a little.

Thanks man, I appreciate it.  Hopefully my recipient is happy with it.  It was a fun build, especially working with a new type of wood.